There are a couple of methods, 1 - "Re-weaving" or fine darning across the holes, well into the intact material around it. Remove the iron-on tape, of course. 2 - Finish the edges of the small holes as if it is cutwork.

Yellowing is not from chlorine bleach...it will just "eat" the fabric and whiten rather than yellow...unless the fabric is silk. If you have really lovely antique linens you need to soak them in an anionic soap (Orvis...available from quilt shops) and distilled water...and make a support frame to rinse and dry them....but if you have merely "old linens" from say the 50's, soaking in a solution of oxy clean will go a long way toward restoring whiteness. Linda C

This is a most riveting subject, and a most interesting thread. I think there is a little bit of truth in many of the posts so far and I've changed my mind on this one at least five times. The actual print inside the frame gave me the impression of a photograph because of the fine white line like old photos get when they are damaged. That being said, one can take a photo of a drawing and parts of this picture are without a doubt hand rendered including the background and that could very well be a studio backdrop. My impression at this point is that this is likely a studio portrait and that it is in essence a composite with the facial features being the true rendering off a negative and the rest a lot of touch up and very poorly executed outright embellishment. If you'd like to see an example of a turn of the century hand painted studio backdrop, I can show you a large portrait of my great-grandfather and his brother sitting in a real chair, but with a very fake staircase behind them. LOL It was not an unusual practise, clear on up to the forties and fifties for some photographers to take portraits in black and white and hand tint and retouch them in the dark room. It wasn't because of the cameras not being able to, but the studios having the equipment to develop them. So seeing 'sketch marks' doesn't prove anything but the skill of the craftsman who took and developed the portrait because you're just as likely to see the editing on a real photograph as not. I have a portrait of my g'grandmother I'm inserting here because judging by her age it would have been taken about 1918-20. It has been hand tinted, and if you look at her blouse, it has obviously been hand retouched for detail and the bottom darkened out to extend the photo as much as possible to the paper to fill it. I think this is what happened to the boy's dress......it was probably enhanced by hand and the chair by imagination and lack of artistic ability. Even poor people scrounged up the money for portraits in the old days, God knows my ancestors weren't rich people and we have them to pass along. But they certainly were special enough not to be done on a whim. One portrait my g'parents had taken in the twenties was of my little aunt who was expected to die at birth, but lived until two years. So, they coughed up the money, even with ten kids, to have a portrait taken of her. I'm no expert and I'm not pretending to be but before I'd blow this one off as a fake, I'd have it checked out. Regardless of how it pans out, and even if it turns out to be a Cracker Barrel nostalgia shot..........it's a Jim Dandy and worth hanging on a wall just to see the mug on that kid.

Very similar narrow & deep shelves in my 1942 bathroom. I recently wrote a post about fixing up my bathroom & you can see some pics there. Link below. I didn't go into detail about the shelf re-build in the blog entry, but you can see what it looks like. Because of the depth, you can see in the pics I have baskets on the shelves. In the baskets I have stored: Top: extra stored bathroom items (extra Q-tips, sunblock, razors, etc...the extras to use when I run out), the Dr. Bag, few bathroom odds & ends I need every once on a while. Middle: My everyday go-to hair supplies: blow dryer, flat iron, brushes, hair products, etc. Bottom: Daughter's bathroom supplies: hair stuff, her toothbrushes, getting ready in the morning essentials...she's 4...she wants beauty stuff like Mommy on her own shelf. Here's my secret: The baskets are fairly large, but they only go halfway to the back because shelf is deep. Behind the baskets are the uglies: extra towels rolled up, makeup, heating pad, etc. You can't see the uglies unless you pull out the baskets. And the best part...because the baskets are big, I have plenty of room to store everyday items. The shelves are always clean & look that way all the time. If I need an emergency company cleanup & have something on the sink I need to hide ASAP, I just throw in one of the baskets. Not sure if that's helpful to you, but that's how I do the deep shelves. Gayle Here is a link that might be useful: My blog